October 02, 2012

Attending the ACO Next Gen Design Charrette

If you have the chance to do a design charette or competition as a student, by all means, you should go for it. It's a great way to work with people and crank out ideas in a short time frame. It's a good way to build confidence - by designing and creatively thinking more and more. This weekend I was at the headquarters of the Ontario
Heritage Trust to attend the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO) Next
Gen Design Charrette. It was great experience, and added a bit of spice to life
to meet people, network, and quickly come up with ideas and solutions to a
current design issue that I did not really focus on in university with my electives. I wanted to open myself to issues of heritage conservation.

This charette was focused on two historical early-20th
century, Edwardian buildings in the city of Toronto. Two bank buildings with a parkette along
Yonge Street, one of the main corridors of the downtown core. It was great day
to see again some of my classmates and colleagues from school since graduation;
actually one was heavily involved in helping out the organizing for this event.

Currently there is redevelopment planned for one of the
existing structures on site. Developers have planned to add a 60 storey condo tower to 197 Yonge street. Kinda shocking - condo towers, a general trend in developers make in
Toronto. However, we were given the task to create a vision of what this space
can be in order to be more cognizant and aware of the historical preservation
of heritage buildings. These two Edwardian buildings in Toronto bear historical
and cultural significance; it was on a very important street in downtown
Toronto that tourists, students, professionals, and citizens use every day. I
really valued the exercise. This charette gave me a break from “portfolio-ing” and it gave me another
opportunity to flex some design muscle, serving another opportunity to work
under pressure and keep calm and just crank out ideas for discussion.

Photo Credit: Vanessa H.

My group primarily consisted with architecture students
(current and myself - recently graduated) from Ryerson University and urban planning
students from University of Waterloo. It was great to see the dialogue on the
issues that architectural designers (and I must agree, myself too) tend to over
look, particular issues concerning public policy and planning. My eyes were
opened on the serious issues that have been brought up by planning students,
regarding public policy, zoning, and the official plans by the city.

At the end of the design
charette, we all shared our solutions and got critiqued by the jury which
consisted of architects and professors. The valuable feedback was a great way
to learn and realize the critical issues we should consider when dealing with
preserving the architectural heritage and place of a site. It is also timely,
because the retrofitting of buildings is sustainable and is a trend that is
being looked to because of their durability, embodied energy, and feasibility. The
ACO Next Gen did a great job in organizing an event that helped promoted the
importance of heritage preservation and conservation.

(By the way...there was a
celebratory dinner at the pub to conclude the festivities.)

2 comments:

Yea, design charettes are great! Many look down on the idea, but it really is more than just designing. I'm a part of a team from AfH AKL who are going to do the Architecture Week design charette here in Auckland. Up against the big boy firms!

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